Person
Watt, John Alexander (1868 - 1958)
- Born
- 1868
Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia - Died
- 31 July 1958
Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Geologist, Medical practitioner and Mineralogist
Summary
John Watt was the first science graduate from the University of Sydney to work professionally as a geologist. He worked as an assayer for a mining company in central New South Wales before being appointed in 1894 to the Horn Scientific Exploring Expedition to Central Australia under the leadership of Charles Winnecke. His reports of the geological work of the Expedition were published in the official 4-volume Report edited by Baldwin Spencer. Following the Expedition, Watt spent a year in the United Kingdom on a Science Research Scholarship awarded by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. Between 1897 and 1899 he was a geologist with the Geological Survey of New South Wales, producing a number of papers in the publications of the State's Department of Mines. Watt then changed careers and qualified as a physician and surgeon. From 1907 to 1939 he was in private medical practice in Tenterfield, New South Wales.
Details
Chronology
- 1890
- Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Sydney
- 1890 - 1892
- Career position - Assayer and assistant metallurgist, Lewis Ponds Gold and Silver Mining Company
- 1894
- Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Sydney
- May 1894 - August 1894
- Career position - Geologist and mineralogist, Horn Scientific Exporing Expedition
- 1895
- Award - 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholarship
- 1897 - 1899
- Career position - Geologist, Geological Survey of New South Wales
- 1906
- Education - Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, London
- 1906
- Education - Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London
- 1907 - 1939
- Career position - In general medical practice, Tenterfield, New South Wales
Related entries
Published resources
Book Sections
- Branagan, D. F., 'John Alexander Watt: geologist on the Horn Expedition' in Exploring Central Australia: society, the environment and the 1894 Horn Expedition, Morton, S. R. and Mulvaney, D. J., eds (Chipping Norton, N.S.W.: Surrey Beatty & Sons, 1996), pp. 42-58. Details
Edited Books
- Spencer, Baldwin ed., Report on the work of the Horn Expedition to Central Australia, 4 vols (London: Melbourne: Dulau and Co.: Melville, Mullen and Slade, 1896). Details
Journal Articles
- Watt, J. A., 'Report on Winter's Reef, near Condobolin', Annual report Department of Mines New South Wales (1898), 184-6. Details
- Watt, J. A., 'Further remarks of the on the saddle reefs of the Hargraves Goldfield', Records of the Geological Survey of New South Wales, 6 (1899), 83-107. Details
Reports
- Advisory Council of Science and Industry, Report of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Advisory Council of Science and Industry: covering the period from the date of the appointment of the Executive Committee (14th April, 1916) to the 30th June 1917 (Melbourne: Commonwealth Government Printer, 1917). https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2788471586. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q60186737. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/44220637. Details
- Early Chemists of Sydney, 2006, http://members.optusnet.com.au/jph8524/McKern.htm. Details
- 'Watt, John Alexander (1868-1958)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1475633. Details
Rosanne Walker and Helen Cohn
Created: 30 June 1997, Last modified: 5 July 2022